Nine Inch Nails
The Fragile

Ok, I messed up. Cursed be the rush and the urge to hit keys before listening, but I have the chance to redeem myself with my personal "Trent Reznor trilogy" with this review of The Fragile, a double album by his Nine Inch Nails, monumental and an important milestone for all our lives. I had written that this record was too indebted to the atmospheres and arrangements of The Downward Spiral, so much so that I preferred Year Zero. I was wrong. YZ remains a splendid work, but it doesn't quite reach the heights of this wonderful cracked mirror, more of an emotional than a technical masterpiece, but with all its flaws, it can rightfully be defined as the highest peak reached by the artist, of course excluding Spiral, which remains sprawled out in its Olympus.

This was one of the aspects that initially diminished my assessment of this endless, complex double album, overflowing with anxieties and torments, which doesn't seem fully capable of handling its immense ambitions. 23 tracks is an exaggerated number, and maintaining qualitative consistency is practically impossible, or almost so; however, compared to TDW, I was annoyed from the start by the not very intentional dirtiness of the compositions, the strange mixing that doesn't always do justice to Reznor's voice. I have no idea if the intention was to propose a more visceral work compared to the surgical elaboration of the previous record, a strange middle ground between raw footage and sterile elaboration, between the organic nature of the guitars and the chill of electronics, but still the feeling seems to lean more toward approximation. The record came out after five years, so time was certainly not lacking for making useful refinements, perhaps it would have been better shorter but "polished." I'm obviously speaking of technical value and not artistic. The second problem is, as mentioned, the close kinship with the style of The Downward Spiral, of which the record at times seems an expanded sequel, fortunately, it only SEEMS. But it's not just a feeling. The obvious reference of Into the Void to Closer, from the bassline to the dance rhythm, perhaps more in the attempt to string together another successful single with that tone. But the track doesn't have an equally memorable refrain; in fact, let's say it doesn't have one at all. The only note of value is the conceptual echo of the melody, which will be repeated in other songs, such as La Mer (which it represents as a remix) and We're in this Together, perhaps the most beautiful piece on the album, with a powerful and desperate, angry, and compelling chorus. This is the aspect of The Fragile that emerges after repeated listening, defining its nature and thus representing the prerogative that belongs to great masterpieces; once those two initial flaws are put behind, its full, undeniable value can be appreciated.

The album also surprises with Reznor's absolute compositional skill, with a clear inclination toward engaging, almost cinematic sounds, and the absolute unpredictability of the solutions adopted. An example is The Day the World Went Away, it's impossible to understand where it wants to go after the epic guitar riff that defines its structure; for sure, I didn't expect the little chorus to sing at the beach, or Just Like You Imagined, an instrumental piece with atmospheres suspended between jazz, metal, and industrial. Other tracks show remarkable care in the refrains and bridges, like the engaging Please, or the menacing wall of metal guitars in The Wretched, while The Fragile follows more conventional rules, almost straddling pop and acoustic, with a perhaps somewhat predictable but practically impossible not to love chorus. Incredibly, in tracks like Even Deeper and I'm looking Forward to Joining You and Underneath it all, almost EDM-compatible paths are explored. Not everything flows as it should, it's practically an infinite album, some episodes turn out to be less necessary, but the overall vision, creativity, and message that reaches the listener are astonishing—messages that had a different significance at the time of release (end-of-millennium anxieties), but still appreciated today. It's a shame only for the technical flaws, but maybe it's my problem, and the balance of the universe is saved. A double album worthy of a place of honor alongside the great works of rock.